WordPress has started offering real-time updates to RSS feeds via PubSub. Though there have been WordPress plug-ins that did this before, this time around the team is opting for the automatic goodness we've all come to know and love. PubSub had already established relationships with Tumblr, Posterous, Google's Blogger and others, but the deal with WordPress is by far the biggest with its 10.5 million blogs.

The idea is pretty simple to understand. Rather than wait for your RSS reader to ping servers for the sites you subscribe to, the real-time protocol, PubSubhubbub, pushes updates out immediately, as long as your reader is PuSH-compatible.

If you have a blog on Wordpress.com, you don't have to configure anything - the new service has been turned on for you already. For companies or individuals that have installed the WordPress software on their websites, they too can use PubSubHubbub. All it takes is downloading the PuSH plug-in and adding it to your WordPress installation.

The instant reception of information is something Web users have come to expect. Services like Twitter and Facebook have made this feature one we simply can't seem to live without. Unfortunately, blogs have seemingly had trouble keeping up. Hopefully, PuSH and services like it will be able to even the playing field.